A Bittersweet Start To The New Year

Pin It

About the only thing that is showing any beauty or color in the garden are the ornamental kale and cabbage I planted last Fall.  They are putting on quite a show!

At the end of October 2014

Mid December 2014

Early January 2015 

Meantime, back at the house....a pipe burst during the freeze we had the last couple of days and it happened to be in Mother's new apartment.  A piece of the wall in the guest bedroom had to be removed together with all the molding around the floor.  Additionally,  the padding for the rug and some of the hardwood floor in the rest of the apartment have to be replaced.  We have six large and noisy fans drying the floors and MM is back upstairs.  After seven months of problems and delays, we got to enjoy the place for less than two months.  Now we are back to square eight and another big expense.

The nostalgia that engulfed me at the beginning of the year has now turned into a full fledged depression.  Madame Mere and I both agree that someone down there doesn't want us moving into their old space.  The time has come for some drastic measures and a serious cleansing!

My new cleaning crew

Back in a bit.

About Last Night...

Pin It

While taking down some of the Christmas decorations today, my eyes lingered on this photo of my parents at a New Year's Eve party in Havana in the 1950's.  She must have been in her late twenties and my father in his early 30's.  It is one of many favorites of the two of them. The expression on my father's face is so typical and just the way I remember him.  And Madame Mere, so stylish in her black dress and pearls.   No wonder she has aged so well, just look at that skin.

I wish we still dressed up like that when it comes to New Year's Eve.  It was so civilized.  Somehow jeans and a sweater don't do it for me when it comes to opening a bottle of Champagne...or sitting down to caviar, Duck A l'Orange and a Grand Marnier souffle.  That's what we had last night, for MM had her heart set on a special dinner and I concurred! Today she's on chicken soup and soda crackers, but she insists it was not "the rich food".

It is interesting the time we spend decorating our houses for the holidays and yet we shun doing the same for ourselves.  It can't be about cost, since what you pay for some of the "casual clothes" I see advertised today can definitely buy you a cocktail dress or two. I think a bit of rebellion or a quest for individuality has a lot to do with this because "dressing up" doesn't take more time than "dressing down" and you'd be surprised how different people act in the former from the way they behave in the latter.  In my book, as far as New Year's Eve is concerned, clothes do make the man (or woman). It would be wonderful to see a little glamour back in our lives.

If you notice a tinge of nostalgia in this post, you are quite right.  Maybe the news and events of the past years have me yearning for the time of my childhood, or maybe I am just tired of the way people dress today,  I'm always a little down on the first day of the new year but I always bounce back,  I'll be chirpier in a couple of days and back in the saddle!

Have A Happy New Year!

But...I was all dressed up!

Madame Mere Has Arrived...To Stay

Pin It

If you have been wondering why Lindaraxa has been blogging sporadically for the last three months and posting recipes on canning and coffee cakes lately, this is why.  This post has been on my draft file for a couple of months.  Nothing much has changed.  Les appartements prives de Madame Mere are still unfinished.  She has been on the main floor now going on three months. The contractor is on The Most Wanted List...In that time much has happened, but we are still talking and hugging each other.  

Yes, you read it right the first time.  Madame Mere, Lindaraxa's mother, has arrived to stay...as in living with her...and her daughter, two female dogs and Coco the cat, in the same house, forever for the foreseeable future.

For those of you new to this blog, the name Madame Mere was given to my mother by one of Lindaraxa's dearest and oldest friends whose family has known hers for three generations.   There's no way Lindaraxa can pull the wool over this friend's eyes, or vice versa.  Each knows exactly where the other is coming from and where all the skeletons are buried in their respective families. They know each other very well.

The term Madame Mere is one of affection and endearment, nothing else;  but said friend knows Lindaraxa's frustrations with her mother and the different characters and personalities involved.  He loves to tease.  He often telephones Madame Mere, all the way from Paris,  particularly when he knows she needs a good laugh.  Lindaraxa knows that, more often than not, they talk about her, something that gives  Madame Mere  great joy and tons of fuel for the battles ahead.  What MM doesn't know is that these phone calls go both ways.

Letizia Bonaparte, Madame Mere

In case you don't know, Madame Mere was the official name given to Letizia Bonaparte, Napoleon's mother.    Immediately after his imperial accession Napoleon granted titles to his family, including that of 'Prince of the Empire' for Joseph and Louis.  However, Letizia was so chagrined at hers - 'Madame Mère de Sa Majesté l'Empereur' (or 'Madame Mère', 'Madam Mother') - that she boycotted the coronation. The title may well have been a deliberate slight from son to mother over family arguments and the Emperor tried to make amends a year later, in 1805, by giving Letizia a country home with over 200 courtiers, high-ranking servants and vast sums of money. 

Madame Mere died in Rome in 1836.

Laetitia Bonaparte portrait by Ramolino in 1835, age 85

  
There is much more to this lady that can be found here.  Suffice it to say that the similarities between my Madame Mere and the original are  many  few, except for their strength of character, thriftiness, deep family roots and loyalty to the family.

 Letizia Bonaparte accompanied Napoleon into exile,  something Madame Mere would have done as well.  Come to think of it, in a way, that is exactly what she has done, although I am a far cry from the emperor.  Yes, it is strange that both she and I have come to live together again, with my daughter, in a strange place.  Elba..., now why didn't I think of that before?!  Never in our lives did either of us think that we would move, lock, stock and barrel, to a small town in the north of Georgia.  It is not a place I would have chosen, although I have been relatively content.  It is peaceful here and I get to spend time with my grandchildren, but I miss the sea and my friends and the hustle and bustle of New York City. 

Madame Mere, June 2014, age 89...no surgeries on that face, just good genes 

She arrived on June 23rd and life, as we both know it, will radically change. I feel sad for MM having to make this change at this stage of her life but we will do everything we can to make her life as happy and peaceful as possible.  We are building an apartment for her in the lower level of the house where she will have independence and a view of the garden.  Work hasn't started yet and, while we wait, she will be staying in the guest room on the main floor. There are no courtiers or high ranking servants here, although sometimes I think she thinks there are.

Shortly after she arrived, she got to meet her third grandchild, little Harper Glen, now two months old.

Stay tuned...the fireworks are about to start!


Photos 1-3 Google
Photo 4 Lindaraxa